Over 1 Million Cord Cutters Ditch Cable and Satellite TV in One Quarter

cageymaru

cageymaru

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According to research firm MoffettNathanson, over 1.1 million legacy cable and satellite TV subscribers did not continue their Pay TV services and joined the growing legion of cord cutters that stream their entertainment. To arrive at these figures, the publicly reported subscriber numbers from various Pay TV services were tallied. Satellite TV services lost 726,000 subscribers and cable TV lost 293,000 subscribers. Many customers are switching to broadband, as in the case of Comcast where 106,000 cable TV subscribers were lost, but 363,000 broadband subscribers were gained in the same period. According to Rich Greenfield of BTIG Research, sub losses were "the third worst quarter in industry history and worst since Q2 2016."

Slowing growth for DirecTV Now and Sling TV could suggest "price sensitivity" of broadband-delivered TV services may be "turning out to be greater than expected," after several of the services increased prices, the analysts said. FuboTV last month said its subscriber base had doubled from a year ago to 250,000. The Motley Fool has estimated YouTube TV has more than 800,000 subscribers and PlayStation Vue, more than 500,000. Hulu two months ago said it surpassed 1 million subscribers. Overall, about 78 percent of U.S. TV households subscribe to some form of pay-TV service, down from 86 percent in 2013, according to Leichtman Research Group.
 
these cable companies also provide internet access to the same customers. they will just strategize to raise prices, or again hit you with QoS unless you are on their own streaming services. They are going to find a way to squeeze their money out of you. I am so jealous of my parents who get all their new movies from the library and read books for entertainment, all the while still being fine with 1.5mb DSL($15 a month in their area) so they arent going full amish mode. True cord cutters, I am so jealous.
 
kamxam said:
IF they'd let us pick and choose what channels we want rather than get a bloated TV package, then i'd guess they'd get more subscribers?
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Your wish will be granted now that net neutrality has been abolished in the US. Now you'll get to pick and pay for each streaming service. There will be a Facebook channel, a Youtube channel, an Instagram channel and so on. ;)
 
Cord cutting is step 1.

The real fight is to change networks to ditch their time allotment release schedule nonsense. I dont want to wait until 10pm to watch some damn show. I want to watch it when I want to watch it. All these networks do by continuing to only air a show at a given hour is force me to download it from a more eastern timezone. Bonus is that all the commercials will be stripped out and it's in a quality and format that is thousands of times more flexible and helpful to consumers.

I pay for hulu, prime, netflix. So it's not so much about money that drives me to not subscribe to cable. It's that you are paying so much for cable and only care about literally < 10% of the content and on top of that, they tell you when and how you can watch that content. Then if you want to watch it _after_ their "live" airing you have to pay extra and you still can't skip the commercials.

Your feature set sucks cable companies. Your hardware sucks. Your content selection sucks. Price is only half the battle.


The other side of the coin is that there's a massive shift towards homebrew-ish content from vlogs and the like that you often find on youtube. These shows aren't carried on normal cable subs via any channels. Hell, even though i pay for 3 streaming services, i'm often watching free shows on free streaming services as filler ...only diving into the paid stuff for a show here and there when it's available.
 
Whats absolutely fucking hilarious is that they could totally stop the hemorrhaging right now if they simply made their prices reasonable.

Does it really matter that much if you have 200 channels or 500 channels when you can only watch 1 at a time anyways?
 
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Darth Ender said:
Cord cutting is step 1.

The real fight is to change networks to ditch their time allotment release schedule nonsense. I dont want to wait until 10pm to watch some damn show. I want to watch it when I want to watch it. All these networks do by continuing to only air a show at a given hour is force me to download it from a more eastern timezone.
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You realize networks make show primarily as a source of revenue and your entertainment is a distance second as long as they get enough viewers they don't care, and your convenience of when you want to watch is not even on their radar. Case in point whenever they do the Olympics they maximize their revenue by putting it on at prime time to get the most out of commercial revenue.

That said why do you care that it comes on at 10pm? Why MUST you download from an eastern time zone? Why can't you record it yourself and watch it the next day at any time you want? Or are we of the mindset of "I need to enjoy it the actual day it is released because I can't wait another day?

Bonus is that all the commercials will be stripped out and it's in a quality and format that is thousands of times more flexible and helpful to consumers.
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And back to point one, you basically remove any sort of revenue for said network by you watching the show this way. But quality is more flexible? How is the quality any better than the quality that it is aired? I mean sure maybe you have Comcast that's compressed to hell and it was ripped from DirecTV or straight over the air but the quality shouldn't be better. And more flexible. If it's an hour long show, you have to wait until the show is over on the EST feed so now we're only 2 hours sooner than PST, and if they remove commercials and encode it into a watchable format it then get around to posting it online that's maybe another 30 minutes, you getting around to finding it and downloading it maybe another 30 minutes, so reasonably you'd save between 1 and 2 hours from when it was aired, and again you could easily do this yourself with any sort of recording device from a DVR to a VCR.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not criticizing you for doing this, I do it too. But I'm not going to go around claim companies need to stop with the DRM, so I'm going to pirate every game out there, and hey bonus is it's free!
 
kamxam said:
IF they'd let us pick and choose what channels we want rather than get a bloated TV package, then i'd guess they'd get more subscribers?
Click to expand...

That's what the streaming channels are doing. $10 here, $15 there, and more and more exclusive content moving to new service after new service. The next thing you know it's more than your cable bill to have access to "only the stuff you want" on 50 separate services.
 
Cyraxx said:
Whats absolutely fucking hilarious is that they could totally stop the hemorrhaging right now if they simply made their prices reasonable.

Does it really matter that much if you have 200 channels or 500 channels when you can only watch 1 at a time anyways?
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This also an issue with those who own the channels, if Comcast wants to have Comedy Central, then Viacom is going to demand they also pay for BET which a vast majority of people probably don't care about, not to say Comcast is in the clear because they do the same shit with their assets. The fact is 90% of the channels are owned by 6 companies, so it's quite the oligarchy of power when it comes to "if you want this channel that 90% of your subscribers want you're also going to get this this and this channel that less than 10% of your subscribers want"
 
That is why I subscribe to Direct Tv Now so I can get Discovrery. SLing doesnt carry Discovery since it is owned by Direct TV (AT&T).
 
kamxam said:
IF they'd let us pick and choose what channels we want rather than get a bloated TV package, then i'd guess they'd get more subscribers?
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That is part of the problem. It's not on them some of the time. They're a final mile distributor and are beholden by the distribution rights they've negotiated. Unfortunately, most networks want to force them into bundled packages, so they can't resell a single channel without all of the channels of the bundle.

Someone like Discovery doesn't want customers to be able to just buy HGTV without getting Food Network, Travel, and an assortment of other networks. Why? Because that forced bundle gets their subscriber numbers up and allows them to get more for the "potential audience" of the ad equation.

Unfortunately, there's been some major consolidation of the networks over the years and a few big players own most of them so the bargaining power is in their favor if they have at least one popular channel.
 
purple_monster said:
these cable companies also provide internet access to the same customers. they will just strategize to raise prices, or again hit you with QoS unless you are on their own streaming services. They are going to find a way to squeeze their money out of you. I am so jealous of my parents who get all their new movies from the library and read books for entertainment, all the while still being fine with 1.5mb DSL($15 a month in their area) so they arent going full amish mode. True cord cutters, I am so jealous.
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I'm also jealous of your parents, we got Spectrum everyday low price and it's gone up 66% in the last year and half with no change in service. Now we pay about 1/2 of a new customer for about 1/100 of the speed. I'm pretty they are making up their lost TV revenue from their internet subscribers.
 
What pisses me off is when they move a Network to another tier. For example Velocity channel used to come with HD. Now that the numbers are up for viewers they move it to Sports package so now I got to get that as well.
 
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cageymaru said:
Slowing growth for DirecTV Now and Sling TV could suggest "price sensitivity" of broadband-delivered TV services may be "turning out to be greater than expected," after several of the services increased prices, the analysts said.
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And water is wet...

One of the main reasons people are cord cutting is due to the high prices of traditional Cable TV.
Why would they think people will pay just as much for streaming?
 
Z3r0k3wl said:
Your wish will be granted now that net neutrality has been abolished in the US. Now you'll get to pick and pay for each streaming service. There will be a Facebook channel, a Youtube channel, an Instagram channel and so on. ;)
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So net neutrality would have require someone to combine all the streaming services into one low cost service? :rolleyes:
 
Darth Ender said:
Cord cutting is step 1.

The real fight is to change networks to ditch their time allotment release schedule nonsense. So it's not so much about money that drives me to not subscribe to cable. It's that you are paying so much for cable and only care about literally < 10% of the content and on top of that, they tell you when and how you can watch that content. Then if you want to watch it _after_ their "live" airing you have to pay extra and you still can't skip the commercials.
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That's what DVR's are for. I just record the shows and watch them later, sometimes weeks/months later. Plus I get to skip the commercials.

Most the cable company DRV's are too limited or restrictive.
I prefer my Windows 7 Media center that has a 4TB drive for shows. Noticed last night we had 1,234 shows on the recorded list. :eek:
With 4 tuners and 4TB of storage, we rarely have a conflict and there's more than enough room to record an entire series and then binge watch it. :D
 
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Sparky said:
What pisses me off is when they move a Network to another tier. For example Velocity channel used to come with HD. Now that the numbers are up for viewers they move it to Sports package so now I got to get that as well.
Click to expand...

Kids used to watch Pokémon every week. Watched for years.

A few years ago, Disney bought the rights to the show and put it on Disney XD.
Only way I can get Disney XD is to subscribe to an additional package of channels. None of the other channels is something we would watch.
So we no longer watch Pokémon.
They complained the first few months, but now it doesn't matter. Even if Pokémon moved back to a channel we get, I don't think they would bother watching it any more.
 
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If only I could get cheap, fast internet so I could cut the cord. Oh wait... my internet comes from my cable provider. HMMMMM

Vertical integration in effect
 
This is the price cable companies pay when they don't innovate for over 15 years, charge $40 extra box fees for a household, constantly increase prices every year, and force you do pay for content you don't want.
 
Domingo said:
That's what the streaming channels are doing. $10 here, $15 there, and more and more exclusive content moving to new service after new service. The next thing you know it's more than your cable bill to have access to "only the stuff you want" on 50 separate services.
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Thankfully it's only stuff I want and not stuff I need. If I don't want it bad enough to pay those $5-15 bucks (trust me, there's no channel or sub service other than crunchyroll that I'd pay more than $5 just for a single show...and there's more than just one that I'd watch on there), then I just wont.
 
I cut the cord 8 years ago...do not miss it one bit. The amount of commercials shown was out of this world. the content was rerun or remade trash...boring and typical across all the channels. When History, Discovery, and TLC all become reality shows was a turning point for me.
 
Viper16 said:
I cut the cord 8 years ago...do not miss it one bit. The amount of commercials shown was out of this world. the content was rerun or remade trash...boring and typical across all the channels. When History, Discovery, and TLC all become reality shows was a turning point for me.
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This... and add A&E to that list too. Then all of the mysteries moved (briefly) over to Biography channel... until it went reality too - and we cut the cord then.
/95% of everything we want to want is on either broadcast, Netflix, AcornTV or BritBox
//would like to add Hallmark for the wife's holiday romance movie porn binge
 
It's all about what the consumers want. Cable and Satellite companies don't care what the consumers want. They'll continue to raise rates on both internet and TV services and then blame someone else for everyone pirating content.

I begrudgingly pay for the inflated internet service and will continue to support linux distributions. ;)
 
I've been off the cable tv for over a decade. If I ever feel the urge to get back on it, I'm sure there are support groups that can help.
 
tikiman2012 said:
I've been off the cable tv for over a decade. If I ever feel the urge to get back on it, I'm sure there are support groups that can help.
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i have found the BEST way to ensure you dont go back to cable is to go out somewhere and stay in a motel. Spend 15 minutes channel surfing while the wife is getting ready.. that will KILL any latent thoughts or desire to resub to cable



:ROFLMAO:
 
I was driving to work the other morning and heard a new Cox Communications radio ad trying to make it sound "cool" by using a stereotypical Shaft-esque black male voice, talking to (what I would assume to be) a dorky white young adult living in his mom's house still (this part was confirmed at the end). The Shaft voice tried to make it sound cool to use Cox Contour to have access to all these great shows, and replays, and even being able to set your house thermostat from your cell phone before arriving home! Wow! Really? They actually tried to make Contour sound like the new craze we should all jump on. I liken it to the "Tide Ball" challenge. If you actually take the bait, you deserve what you get.
 
Cox communications in our town wants to control the alarm system, cable tv, internet, wifi mesh, doorbell monitor, camera systems all in one nice little bundle...wtf.
 
Been using YouTube TV for awhile now and really like their DVR feature. Only thing they don't offer that I really wish is a skip commercial feature. Other than that I'm loving it!
 
Icon_Charlie said:
Absolutely. There is nothing that is going to stop them and any savings in the near future will be gone.
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Unless you have options, I mean Xfinity gigabit service that normally is 159.99 is actually 89.99 here because... AT&T has Gigapower 1Gbps service for $90, and it's actually symmetrical speed unlike Comcast, also have other smaller 3rd party companies offering "fast enough" speeds.
 
I ditched comcast with caps and bought fixed wireless with no data caps through a locally owned company. No bullcrap, 40.00 flat each month.

The lack of coporate headaches and stealth price increases, local human support, and no data caps is a worthwhile trade for a lower "top speed."
 
I always look at this but the pricing never makes sense...I'd end up paying the same amount, or more, to buy all the options as opposed to a cable package.
 
Viper16 said:
Cox communications in our town wants to control the alarm system, cable tv, internet, wifi mesh, doorbell monitor, camera systems all in one nice little bundle...wtf.
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And charge you for every piece of the bundle. Nothing like a $300 or $400 cable/internet bill :yuck:
 
joobjoob said:
I ditched comcast with caps and bought fixed wireless with no data caps through a locally owned company. No bullcrap, 40.00 flat each month.

The lack of coporate headaches and stealth price increases, local human support, and no data caps is a worthwhile trade for a lower "top speed."
Click to expand...

Would love to have a choice here.
It will have to be a wireless solution, or I have to wait until I retire/move in about 8-10 years.
 
nutzo said:
So net neutrality would have require someone to combine all the streaming services into one low cost service? :rolleyes:
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I think you fail to grasp the purpose of net neutrality. Net neutrality is the principle that Internet service providers should enable access to all content and applications regardless of the source, and without favoring or blocking particular products or websites.
 
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